Cuisinart CSB-76BC SmartStick 200-Watt Immersion Hand Blender, Brushed Chrome
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart CSB-76BC SmartStick 200-Watt Immersion Hand Blender, Brushed Chrome
Customer Review: Invaluable tool for the kitchen!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned my Cuisinart stick blender for about 3 years. I had a cheap one I got at WM. It was awful! I threw it away. It was my son who convinced me to try a better quality one. I bought it at my local Bed, Bath and Beyond because I had a discount coupon. Amazon's price is about what I paid for it. It is one of the kitchen tools that I use on a daily basis. It works great!!! I admit, I probably under use it based on some of the other reviews. I did puree pea soup with it and it was perfectly smooth. I have made mashed potatoes with it too. I make A LOT of protein smoothies with it. I have just retired so I am sure I will find other uses for it now that I am cooking more. It is sturdy and yet it is light weight enough for me to handle easily. I saw a previous review that said they used it to make Hummus. I will have to try that! If the time comes when I need to replace it, I will choose the Cuisinart again. In fact most of kitchen appliances are Cuisinart. I started with the Food Processor Plus and have been replacing my old appliances, when they die, with Cuisinart. I have been impressed with the quality of my Cuisinart appliances and I have found they are worth the little extra price over lower brands that don't last or can't perform as they should. As they say, you get what you pay for. By the way, one reviewer said the plastic handle looked cheap. I disagree. I have a white handle on mine and it does not look cheap at all. If your preference is the new stainless steel look then it probably won't appeal to you either. The brushed chrome would probably be more eye appealing to you.Customer Review: Immersion blender works great
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Cuisinart SmartStick immersion blender in brushed chrome about three months ago. My chief motive in writing this review is to make life easier for other weekend cooks out there. :-)
Pluses:
- Powerful and effective
- Dependable performance to date
- Blends liquid and solid ingredients together in one pot in short order
- Has completely replaced my blender and food processor for soups, stews and sauces
- When making purees, eliminates the need to blend in batches (a real time saver)
- Handier to access in my cupboard than hauling out blender or processor
- A breeze to clean (just eject the blade and pop it into the dishwasher)
- Takes up much less room in the dishwasher than processor or blender parts
I haven't experienced any cons, but I was a little nervous at first about using the stick blender in my nonstick dutch oven or my crockpot. This is an implement that doesn't mess around and I don't want to damage my cookware! But I find it's easy enough to move around in the pot without bumping anything and it draws the ingredients in from the sides and bottom.
Today I used it for a chile colorado recipe that called for processing solid ingredients in a food processor with a little liquid to form a paste, then adding the paste to a pot with the rest of the liquid. Instead I quickly pulverized and blended onions, garlic and chiles with all of the liquid and spices, in one step, in one container - saving time, mess and hassle.
I highly recommend this item.
Customer Review: Love it!
Summary: 5 Stars
So, I hate fruit. Not so much the way it tastes but I really don't care for the texture of any of it. I can tolerate a sliced up apple without the skin, but that's about where it ends.
When I started researching way to get fruit into my diet, I went directly to juice. Sadly, the juicer leaves out most of what is important in the fruit, all the roughage! That's when the stick blender came into my life, for smoothies.
Since ordering this I have made all kinds of fruit smoothies. Adding a little yogurt, flax seed, honey and whatever frozen or fresh fruit I have lying around, I am now in fruit heaven! It can grind through a whole kiwi, loads of frozen strawberries, mangoes, pineapple and blueberries without hesitation. The nice plastic cup included is plenty enough to make an 8 oz smoothie for myself and 2 smaller ones for my children in one quick mix.
I have also used it to mix my tomato sauce right in the pot! Not to mention making some rockin' potato leek soups, roasted rep pepper soups and a few others. Why I never had one of these before is beyond me. I had a food processor that sat untouched in my cabinet for 4 years but THIS! This I can't live without.
The stick comes apart and goes right into the dishwasher, as does the cup. Loads of washings later it still works as good as new. Of course, safety first when using it means not plugging it in until you are ready to use and keeping a watchful eye and strong hand on it at all time. Thus far I have never had a problem.
Customer Review: The "Brushed Chrome" is actually plastic
Summary: 4 Stars
I know it's my fault, but I didn't read the fine print of the product description, I just saw that it was described as "brushed chrome." The top part is actually ABS plastic painted in the color "brushed chrome," with the bottom part of the wand being stainless steel. It would be more appropriate to describe this blender as gray than the deceiving name they've chosen. The top part has a somewhat flimsy feel to it when you consider how powerful it is.
I was not at all expecting this blender to be as enormously powerful as it is; it works amazingly well. One thing that I didn't like so much was that when I put it in a stock pot to blend a soup, the wand was so powerful that it sucked itself down to the bottom of the pot, making it difficult to move to other areas of the pot while on. It was nearly impossible to keep the wand off the bottom of the pot with a soup that was about 5-6 inches deep, and I'm a big, athletic guy. Variable speed would be a nice feature, and it's available on other immersion blenders. Depending on the particle size of the things you are blending, they may not get pulled through the blade guard (see picture) and blended if the wand is stuck on the bottom of the pot. It works great though; it'll blend an entire pot of soup in about 20 seconds
I wish I could put the blender in a nalgene bottle, but the blender is just a tad too wide.
The bottom part detaches and cleans easily either in the sink or in the dishwasher; no complaints there at all.
Customer Review: Love this new toy of mine
Summary: 5 Stars
Having owned an Osterizer blender for many, many, many years, that I eventually broke (silly me, I left a spoon in the glass blender with smoothie items and set it on puree!!!! ... enough said), I opted for an immersion blender. I hadn't owned one before so I was skeptical. I wanted to make sure it had power, looked sharp and something that I could use daily. It's perfect in all three areas.
I am getting better and better at using it ... no major accidents. :-) The biggest PLUS for me is that once I use it, it gets cleaned immediately. My trusty blender was cumbersome. So many parts that needed cleaning.
My immersion blender came with a whisk, which, after a minor egg white disastor, I've shelved that. :-) I'm happy whisking manually.
The blender is powerful. I've pureed many potato soups ... yum yum and scores of smoothies. I blend the smoothie items in a separate container. The blender is very strong and the container requires holding, lest it goes flying.
My blender also came with a chopper, which I love using. No more tears with chopped onions! Yey!
I now enjoy cooking more because I have easy-to-use products that can be cleaned quickly. I own a food processor, but haven't used it in many years.
This new gadget is well used and well taken care of.
I'll post an update in six months.
I highly recommend this purchase.